Instagram model ‘helps mum escape jail by distracting guard’ in daring plan

Colombian influencer Aída Victoria Merlano, 21, was reportedly able to execute her daring plan of breaking her mum out of prison by using a hidden rope and a getaway bike.

During a trial this week, prosecutors heard that the model helped former politician Aída Merlano Rebolledo escape from a Bogota prison by climbing out of a dentist’s third-story window and using a rope to get to the ground, Vice reported.

Senator Rebolledo, then 38, was jailed in 2019 after being convicted of voter fraud, corruption, and illegal possession of weapons.

She was sentenced to 15 years behind bars within six months of her election victory and escaped just two weeks after.

Her 21-year-old daughter was charged at the time but has remained free on bail and often shares snaps of herself with her 2.5 million followers.

The opportunity to escape arose when Rebolledo was granted leave of jail to attend a dentist appointment.

But while she was accompanied by a prison guard and a driver to the dentist’s office located outside the jail, she was allowed to enter alone.

Trial evidence showed that she was later left alone in the examination room.

It was during this moment that she launched into a daring prearranged escape plan as her daughter was chatting to the security guard in a bid to distract him.

Footage from El Tiempo shows the moment she was able to climb down from the window using a red cord before dropping to the ground in front of shocked onlookers.

She then proceeds to jump on the back of a bike, allegedly driven by a man posing as a delivery driver, and flees the scene.

As the news of her escape hit the headlines, Merlano took advantage of the situation.

Almost a month later she was featured on the cover of a magazine posing naked in handcuffs with the tagline “The Daughter of the Fugitive Congresswoman Confesses”.

Rebolledo was eventually caught in Venezuela a few months later, in January 2020.

Authorities who suspected her daughter and the dentist, Javier Cely Barajas, were accomplices, officially charged them the following month.

The duo has pleaded innocent during the trial this week but they face years in jail if found guilty.

The Instagram model said in an Instagram video: “Despite getting up every day knowing that I can go to jail for 21 years, I am happy because I have the conviction that happiness is a decision that one makes every day.

“Be happy today because you do not know what will happen tomorrow.”

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Instagram model ‘helps mum escape jail by distracting guard’ in daring plan